Apocalypse

by C. M. Gray

  ‘The apocalypse?’ said Sophie again.

  I nodded. ‘The zombie apocalypse.’

  Sophie gazed again at the poster. ‘All of this is meant to happen tonight. He’s already done the brain-candy. The next thing on the list is the bridge. If he blows that up, we’ll be on our own.’

  Suddenly, searching for one rogue zombie seemed pointless.

  With the bridge gone, there would be no escape. And when the whole town was infected, would he unleash us on the rest of the country? The world?

  Seabrook wasn’t far from the mainland, but getting everybody off the island by boat would take time. And the clock was ticking.

  ‘How long do you think we’ve got?’ asked Sophie.

  I didn’t want to freak her out, but I had to be honest. ‘We might already be too late.’

  10

  Getting to the bridge would take ages if we were on foot, unless we could use our zombie speed.

  ‘Do we run there?’ I asked Sophie as we jogged down the grand staircase of The House.

  ‘Isn’t it too risky in front of everyone on the streets?’

  ‘We are pretty desperate,’ I said.

  ‘But what if it causes a panic?’ Sophie replied. ‘We don’t want to make the situation worse!’

  ‘OK, you’re right. How about we take bikes?’

  ‘We haven’t got time to get them from home,’ said Sophie.

  We slipped down the front path of The House and out onto the street. There were still a few trick-or-treaters, drifting from house to house. A couple of kids dressed as zombies lurched up to us. ‘Brrraaaiiiins!’

  ‘There’s no brains here. We’re undead too,’ I told them, and flashed my infrared vision a couple of times.

  ‘Wow! Freaky!’

  ‘Did you see that?!’

  I’m not sure if they were scared or impressed but they hurried away, which was just what we wanted. I stopped and faced Sophie. ‘We might have to steal some bikes.’ I knew she wouldn’t like that idea. So I added, ‘The future of the world is at stake. Or at least the future of Seabrook.’

  ‘Fine,’ said Sophie finally. ‘We’ll borrow them from a house around here. We can return them tomorrow when all this is over. If we survive.’

  That was unexpected. ‘Good point,’ I said. ‘Let’s go.’

  We crept down the street, sticking to the shadows. Most of the houses were dark now, which made it kinda creepy. It felt like the town had been abandoned and only a few kids had been left behind. Goosebumps leapt up across my arms as I realised this was what it would be like after the apocalypse.

  ‘Which one should we choose?’ I asked. The houses all looked the same to me. How would we know which one would have bikes in its back shed?

  ‘We’ll pick one that looks like kids live there,’ Sophie told me. ‘It’ll be more likely to have bikes.’

  ‘But how will we know which one has kids li—’

  ‘There,’ Sophie interrupted, pointing toward a big brick place with kids’ toys scattered across the front porch.

  We ran closer and ducked behind the bushes in their front yard.

  ‘What do we do now?’ I whispered.

  ‘You can see in the dark, so I guess it’s best if you go look for bikes. They’ll probably be in a shed out the back,’ said Sophie.

  ‘What?! Why do I have to go and steal the bikes by myself?’

  ‘This was your idea,’ she reminded me. ‘And if we both go, we’ll make too much noise.’

  I ground my teeth. She could be so annoying! ‘Fine,’ I said.

  I switched to infrared vision and checked that the coast was clear before slipping out from behind the bush where we were hiding. The driveway that led to the house was long and dappled with moonlight. A wooden fence stood between the driveway and the back yard. I ducked my head and ran along the fence. Luckily, no barking dog greeted me as I climbed over the wooden palings. I jumped down, landing lightly on the grass. A set of swings stood in one corner of the yard and beside it, a shed. ‘Bingo!’

  I crept across the yard toward it. There was no cover because the whole yard was one big lawn, which meant that if anyone looked out one of the back windows, they’d be sure to see me. But the house stayed dark and silent.

  When I reached the shadows around the shed, I waited for a couple of seconds. My heart was thumping hard, and even though I wasn’t puffed, I was breathing heavily. I was definitely not cut out for a life of crime!

  The door of the shed creaked as I opened it and slipped inside. With my infrared vision, everything looked greenish-grey, but I could still see well enough to make out a couple of bikes. One of them was a ten-speed dirt bike. I flicked to normal vision, and in the moonlight that shafted through the open door, I could see the colour: midnight blue. The thing was beautiful!

  The other bike was hidden behind an old tarp, so I grabbed the ten-speed first and wheeled it out the door.

  ‘This way!’ A whispered voice made me jump, before Sophie’s shape appeared. ‘There’s a gate over here.’

  I turned the bike in her direction.

  ‘Is there another one?’ she hissed as she took it from me.

  I nodded. ‘Take this one. I’ll go back for yours.’

  Sophie wheeled the bike out of the yard while I headed back into the shed.

  When I pulled away the plastic, my heart sank.

  I wondered if Sophie would mind, but actually I already knew the answer. I lugged it out of the shed and across the yard. It was easier to carry the thing than wheel it because it was so small.

  The gate still stood open. I closed it carefully behind me and headed for the bushes where I could see Sophie’s bright blue shape.

  Sophie’s new ride

  ‘This is the girl’s one.’

  Sophie looked at it. ‘Nope. This is the girl’s one.’ She threw her leg over the cross-bar of my bike and took off down the street, dodging the fake zombies pretending to lurch and moan.

  ‘Wait! What?’ I couldn’t believe it! I’d done all the hard work and now she was getting the best bike!

  She disappeared around the corner.

  It looked like I didn’t have much choice. I bent the training wheels up and, trying to ignore the unicorn flag flapping at the back, I took off after her.

  The zombies laughed as I roared past, and I kinda didn’t blame them. Even my zombie powers didn’t help much because my knees were up around my ears. I had to peddle half a dozen blocks before I finally caught up with Sophie.

  ‘It suits you,’ she smirked when I whizzed up beside her, my legs pumping so hard they were a blur.

  ‘That one doesn’t suit you!’ I told her. The bike she was riding, my bike, looked awesome in the moonlight.

  ‘Did you see the shops back there?’ she asked as we turned onto the road that led from the town to the bridge. There were fewer houses now, and on either side there were mostly just fields dotted with trees.

  ‘Nope.’ I’d been too annoyed with her to notice anything much.

  ‘A couple had smashed windows — do you think someone tried to break in?’

  ‘You mean Mr Bill?’

  ‘Maybe,’ said Sophie, ‘or the rogue zombie we saw earlier.’

  I wondered again who it was. After visiting The House and seeing the brain-candy, I was almost certain it was a kid who had stumbled across the poisoned brain-lollies. Someone who was brave enough, or stupid enough, to try trick-ortreating at The House. Luckily, they’d also been greedy enough to take most of the candy in the bowl. If they hadn’t, I was sure Seabrook would’ve been crawling with zombies by now.

  We were silent for the rest of the way. Soon the bridge loomed out of the darkness ahead.

  ‘At least it’s still standing,’ said Sophie as we pulled over and climbed off our bikes. The large metal and concrete road stretched over the black water and into the distance.

  ‘Maybe Mr Bill hasn’t arrived yet.’

  I ditched my bike and jogged onto the bridge. I le
ant over the side to gaze down at the massive concrete pylons below us. Was Mr Bill hiding behind one of them, watching us from the shadows? Would he set off the explosives when we were above him on the bridge?

  The water was dark and fast-flowing. ‘I’m going down to look for him,’ I told Sophie. ‘If he’s not here yet, we should hide somewhere and wait.’

  ‘Then I’m coming with you,’ said Sophie. ‘What about the bikes?’

  ‘Let’s hide them in the grass,’ I suggested. ‘That way he won’t spot them.’

  We dumped the bikes in the long grass that grew around the edges of the bridge, then, side by side, we climbed down the rocky bank. The bridge looked even bigger from underneath. We crept around the huge concrete pylons slowly, eyes open wide, searching for the faintest gleam of blue light that would give away a zombie, lurking in the dark.

  ‘There’s no one here,’ said Sophie finally, coming to a stop beside the last pylon, which stood in the shallow water near the river’s edge. ‘We’d better get—’

  ‘SSSSSHHHHH!’ I hissed, clutching her arm. ‘I think I heard something!’ The hair on the back of my neck sprang to attention. In the distance, I heard the engine of a car. Was it Mr Bill? Was he on the way to the bridge right now?

  ‘You stay here,’ I whispered. ‘I’m going up to have a look.’

  ‘Take this,’ said Sophie, pulling her torch out of her pocket and handing it to me. ‘It might be useful.’

  ‘Is that the one with the megawatt beam? ’Cause I don’t think—’

  ‘I can hear it too!’ Sophie said suddenly. ‘That’s not one car. It sounds like a convoy of trucks! Do you think HAZMAT are on the way?’

  We rushed back the way we had come and climbed up the steep, rocky bank together, bent over double so we wouldn’t be seen. Away from the noise of the river, the sound of trucks grew louder.

  ‘There!’ Sophie said, pointing to the opposite bank, where a line of lights coming from the mainland was approaching the bridge. As the trucks drove under the streetlights, the HAZMAT logo on the side of each vehicle flashed into view. ‘It is HAZMAT! They’ve come to help!’ Sophie gave a little squeal and started jumping up and down.

  ‘Let’s go over and ride back into Seabrook with them,’ I suggested. ‘We can explain the situation on the way.’

  We didn’t bother with the bikes and instead started jogging across the bridge.

  ‘They’ve seen us!’ cried Sophie as the convoy stopped just before the bridge. ‘They’re waiting for us over there.’

  We sped up. When we were almost in the middle, there was a flash of fire once . . . twice . . . from up ahead. Two bright spots, like massive stars, drifted up into the night sky.

  Sophie and I skidded to a stop to watch as the lights rose high above us.

  ‘What are they?’ I said.

  ‘They look like fireworks,’ breathed Sophie.

  The lights seemed to hover in the air for a few seconds, then they turned and raced down, toward the bridge. It took me a few seconds to figure it out, but just before they hit, I realised what was happening. The bridge was being bombed — not by Mr Bill, but by HAZMAT!

  ‘Get back!’ I yelled, shoving Sophie so hard we both fell back onto the ground just as the bombs hit. The blast knocked me flying and I was flung through the air like a rag doll. I sat up, seeing stars, Sophie sprawled beside me.

  I managed to stand and wobbled on the spot for a minute. As I watched on in shock, a huge section of the bridge — or what was left of it — slowly sank into the black water. I spun around and saw the lights of Seabrook flicker and go out.

  ‘What . . . what happened?’ Sophie was sitting up, rubbing her head.

  ‘HAZMAT happened,’ I said. ‘They bombed the bridge and they must’ve cut the power too.’

  Sophie climbed unsteadily to her feet. ‘Whoa!’ she breathed as she peered at the gaping hole in front of us.

  If we’d been a little further across, it would have been a direct hit. On us.

  ‘I can’t believe it,’ said Sophie. ‘My parents said HAZMAT were the good guys. Why would they do this to us?’

  I’d had a few extra seconds to process it. ‘Dirk Hunt figured out we were right, and I guess he realised their best option was to isolate the virus. There’s no chance of anyone getting off the island now.’

  Sophie shuddered as she stared at the barricade of HAZMAT trucks assembling on the other side of the bridge.

  ‘They know there’s an apocalypse coming so Seabrook has been sacrificed,’ I murmured. ‘We’ve just become casualties of war.’

  11

  ‘They’re abandoning us?!’ Sophie was as white as a vegetarian ghost. ‘They’re leaving us alone on a zombie-infested island?’

  ‘Yeah, but we’re the zombies,’ I said. Not for the first time, I had to admit I was pleased to be undead.

  ‘Why would they do that?’ Sophie raced to the crumbling edge of the bridge, stopping right on the edge of the gaping chasm. She yelled at the trucks, ‘How dare you! How dare you do this to my family!’

  I jogged up to her and put an arm around her shoulders. ‘It’s OK, Soph. We’ll figure it out.’ But the truth was that I was just as shaken up as her. This was even worse than I’d imagined.

  ‘I guess we’ll have to,’ said Sophie bitterly, glaring at the trucks parked along the opposite bank. ‘We’re on our own.’

  We headed back the way we’d come. The blast had flung our bikes up out of the grass and now they lay in twisted metal piles on the road.

  We moved what was left of them so they blocked the entrance to the bridge. The last thing we needed was people driving off the edge and being carried away in their cars by the current.

  ‘We have to hurry,’ I said. ‘If Mr Bill knows the bridge is gone, he’ll move onto the next step of his plan.’

  ‘Henderson Park?’

  I nodded. ‘It’s the perfect place, ’cause that’s where everyone will go when they figure out all the power is out and they can’t get off the island.’

  Henderson Park was our official emergency assembly area, in the middle of Seabrook, right in front of the town hall.

  ‘And we’re going to run there?’ Sophie asked. ‘Like . . . zombie speed? What if we get spotted?’

  ‘The time for hiding the fact that we’re zombies is over,’ I said grimly. ‘If we don’t stop Mr Bill, all there’ll be left in Seabrook is zombies.’

  ‘Wow, you’re right.’ Sophie’s face flickered with fear, then determination. ‘We need a plan,’ she said as we set off. ‘What are we gonna do when we get there? Have we got any weapons?’

  I patted my pockets then pulled out her torch. ‘How about this?’

  ‘Sure. You’ll be able to shine someone to death.’

  I slid the torch back into my pocket, feeling defeated.

  ‘Our only hope is to get to Henderson Park before Mr Bill arrives so we can warn everybody,’ Sophie said.

  ‘What about our families?’ I suddenly realised that my parents would have expected me home hours ago. ‘Mine must be worried sick about me by now.’

  We sped up. Fields flashed past. The darkened shapes of houses loomed around us as we reached the outskirts of town.

  A man in a dressing gown stepped out onto the street and gave us a wave. ‘Whoa there, speedsters! Did you kids come from the bridge? What’s going on over there?’

  ‘The bridge is gone.’ I slowed to a stop and glanced back. The sky glowed red in the distance. ‘We’re trapped on the island.’

  ‘The phone isn’t working.’ A woman in pyjamas appeared behind him, holding a cordless phone. ‘And there’s no power.’

  ‘Something weird is going on,’ said the man, tightening his dressing-gown belt. ‘I’m going to drive into town and see if I can get some information. Do you kids want a lift?’

  ‘No, thanks,’ I said quickly. Sure, I was a half zombie, but I wasn’t dumb enough to jump into cars with random people. Anyway, it wouldn’t take us long to get
there. Not at our pace.

  We kept running and soon more people appeared. Some were in cars and others were walking, but all of them seemed to be heading in the same direction.

  ‘They must’ve heard the explosion,’ said Sophie in a low voice, ‘which means Mr Bill would have heard it too. Let’s hope we get there in time.’

  We put our heads down and ran even faster.

  Henderson Park wasn’t much bigger than the average back yard. A couple of swings hung from a metal frame on one side of the grassy paddock, while on the other side stood a slide and a merry-go-round. I scanned the sea of faces for the Knights or my parents or even Miss Bumble the librarian, but I couldn’t see any of them, probably because the place was so crowded. Everyone was there — young people, old people, parents and their kids. The entire population of Seabrook seemed to be crammed into Henderson Park. Most of the adults looked like they’d been relaxing at home in their pyjamas and now had dressing gowns on top, but loads of kids were still in their Halloween outfits.

  ‘Can you see your parents?’ asked Sophie as she craned her neck to see over the mass of people.

  ‘Nope. You?’

  ‘Not yet,’ she said, still looking.

  As I gazed around, a man climbed onto the low, round platform of the merry-goround. He was big and beefy with a red face. He looked familiar, and after a couple of seconds I recognised him: it was Mr Trotter, Tank’s father and Seabrook’s only police officer.

  ‘Gather round!’ bellowed Mr Trotter as the last few stragglers joined the crowd. He raised his hands for silence. ‘If you haven’t heard, there’s been reports that the bridge has collapsed! We are cut off for now, until help arrives. Not only that, but when the bridge went, it took down the electricity lines and the phone lines too.’

  ‘Do you think any of them know what really happened?’ I whispered.

  Sophie shook her head. ‘How could they? They don’t even know zombies exist!’